Michael Owen has opened up about his reluctance to verbally express affection to his children, a stance that experts say highlights persistent generational attitudes toward parenting. Despite the former footballer\u2019s public displays of devotion\u2014most notably when he spoke of sacrificing his own eyesight for his blind son James\u2014Owen admitted during a podcast interview with Laing that he struggles with the phrase.<\/p>\n
“I would love to be a little bit soft,” Owen said. “I’m definitely getting softer, but still not soft enough to say anything like that.”<\/p>\n
Parenting specialists Dale and Dr. Britto suggest that Owen\u2019s use of the word “soft” to describe emotional openness reflects deep-seated cultural norms, gender roles, and class backgrounds that have historically shaped how men approach fatherhood. Dale cautioned against the rigid beliefs dictating what men should or should not do, emphasizing that the traditional provider role is no longer sufficient.<\/p>\n
“Men are much more than just providers,” Dale said. “What about our emotional capacity and willingness to have conversations and be there as fathers? And maybe we can’t provide, but you know what? Our presence is at full capacity.”<\/p>\n
Both experts noted that parenting styles often originate from childhood experiences, suggesting that Owen\u2019s hesitation may stem from whether he was frequently told he was loved as a child himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former England striker Michael Owen admits he does not say ‘I love you’ to his children, prompting experts to discuss evolving expectations of modern fatherhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1425,39,712,1655,1654,1656,10],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bbc","tag-breaking","tag-family","tag-fatherhood","tag-michael-owen","tag-parenting","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}